MONSIEUR LAZHAR

Drama
In French with English subtitles.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Mohamed Said Fellag: Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant
Émilien Néron: Simon
Sophie Nélisse: Alice
Danielle Proulx: School Principal, Mme Vaillancourt
Brigitte Poupart: classroom teacher Claire Lajoie

REVIEW
Once in a while there’s a small scale movie that makes an impact: this is one of them. This well-written story about the interplay between a teacher and his students has none of the overly dramatic scenes so often imposed on the audience.

Instead, the emotions ring true in large measure because of the fine performances of Simon and Alice. But Fellag is no slouch either, giving us an insight to the problems faced by new arrivals to our country.

CLASSIFICATION

for mature thematic material, a disturbing image and brief language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
The distance between Montreal and Algeria is 6,241 kilometres, not 4,000 as stated by Monsieur Lazhar in response to the question posed by one of the students.